Do any of you make jams or jellies from your garden harvests? We make two types of plum jam, strawberry (and strawberry varients) jam, blueberry jam and mixed fruit jam. We make some of it in the summer, but after a certain point, it's just too hot, so we freeze the fruits in and finish jamming in the fall or winter. I mentioned "strawberry varients" above, what I ment by that was things like strawbs and rhubarb, strawbs and apple. The flavour isn't too altered, but it's the pectin that we're after. At the end of the jamming there are always little bits of blueberries, strawbs etc., so we just grind them up altogether with a special bit of kitchenry and get what we call, "Four Fruit Jam" or "Three Fruit Jam". It's delicious. We used to do more types, but narrowed it down to our favourites. What do you folks make?
Sjoerd, This was our first year to can up tomatoes and can pickles. It wasn't as hard as I once thought, in fact it was even fun. So next year I just may try my hand at doing jams and jellies.
I don't make much jam any more. I stretch myself to mixing berries and sugar for a nice spread, but only small amounts, to be eaten within a week.
Well Petunia...that sounds great! We can-up tomato puree and use it to make some extremely nice tomato soup with little-bitty meat balls in it, as well as bolognaise sauce for spaghetti among other things during the course of the year. Droopy...I guess that you don't make much jam--you've given away all your jars. Well, I don't think that I do jams, tomatoes etc, to SAVE money. It's never really cheaper, I don't think...it's a hobby and there is such a feeling of accomplishment after putting those things up. I mean the whole process from seed to plate (in a manner of speaking) is such a pleasure to experience. That's one reason I garden.
Sjoerd, i guess you can say i am THE jam lady. lol. we have 3 farms total, so we have tons of blueberries, cloudberries, black an red currents, rhubarb, flower tops from certain flowers, rose hips. i even use herbs in my jams that i have grown, for more savory kinds of jams for meat,,, ohh yeah also tyttebær, not sure what its called in english, i think whortleberry? but not sure. i also make relishes, compotes. I agree that is is more the process of growing into finshed product. for me its a time when i am out in the mountains or the marshes, that i can think an meditate on how darn good life is. I forgot, i also collect juniper berries for ofcourse the usual for gravies an wild game, but also to make a dark black licorice type of treat. its sooooo soooo good. an i also make out of those a saft that is really thick an sugar added, just as some water an its a type of licorice drink-ade, an i do the same with birch leaves, make the same way an into a saft. very healthy an so darn good.
My goodness, Biite...you really ARE the jam queen. I believe that TYTTEBÆR is what we call veenbes and in english, cranberry. I have eaten a "sauce" made from this. It was very stiff and not fluid at all. It was dewlicious. I like it very much..I drink it's juice almost every day. Lovely stuff. But the variety of fruits that you are jamming is astounding. It's quite remarkable, really. Have you ever fermented juniper berries to make alcohol? It's a favourite aqlcoholic drink here in Nederland, the drink is called jenever...in english I believe it's called gin. Naturally with three farms, you have the potential of growing and harvesting kilos of different fruits. Do you notice a tinge of green around my gills? hahaha. What I wouldn't give to have more land. The small allotments here don't allow for such massive production...so, that in itsself is a challenge: to get as much as possible out of the land available---and to replenish the nutriments to the grounf so that it doesn't get "worn-out". Also... is saft the same as "sap" in english? The licorice sounds good to me. I found your posting exciting reading, Biita.
Saft in Norwegian is a drink that is condensed berries or leaves of somekind, with sugar or honey add, then at the end of the process after its taken off the stove an is a very very thick liquid natron or baking soda is added just like a tsp or less, as a preservative. you take a little of the syrup liquid an add water,, i call it norwegian kool-aid. if you know what the american drink is. its a kind of lemon-ade. cranberries here are called tranebær, the tyttebær is kind of like that but smaller an not as sweet. i honestly don't know what it would be called in english, but if you know the word lingonbær which is swedish then thats what it is. as far as the gin goes,,,lol, not yet,, we need the right equipment to make that,, but gin an schnapps are something my husband is looking into,, right now its just wine, saft, an hubby makes beer an mjød or mead.
lol,, not really, i take a day an just do it,, i enjoy cooking an making what comes from either my garden or the gardens of Kolbjørns grandma, that i have taken over. i like to see the end result. to say wow i did it, an to pass it on to who ever needs or wants it.
Thanks for the explanations, Biita. I can't discover what berry that red one is is then. It sounds like you are a busy bee.
Blackrose, no i just make it an use it or give it away, usually trade with tourist or something, but mostly i make it for the elderly family memebers who can't do it anymore. Sjoerd this is a pic of tyttebær that i found on the net,, it grows close to the ground, usually hidden in the mosses or krekkling (geez an i don't know what that is in english either,,lol) also it usually grows beside or near the blueberries,, here in the artic we don't have blueberry bushes,, they grow near the ground also just as a small plant.
Thanks for the link, Biita. I don't think that I have ever seen that berry. I would have guessed that it was a low-bush cranberry. Is the taste at all similar to cranberries? You mentioned that you didn't have blueberry "bushes" there in the arctic...I know that actually, as I assume that the "dwarf" blueberry plants that I knew in Alaska are probably very similar. When we would travel between cities there we would stop frequently--get out of the truck and just lounge-about on the hills. We would pick the wild blueberries and raspberries where we would find them. Also rose hips (in season). The only problem was that we would always have to keep a sharp lookout for bears, since we were in direct competiton for these lushious berries. We made jams and jellies from them. AS I think back to my years in Alaska, they were really good ones. I was amazed that you could drive for 4-5 hours and never see an auto. and it was so quiet when you got out of the auto--quiet enough to hear the beetles walking on the ground.
